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Deborah is a writer and champion of books. She is an independent reader/reviewer, uncompensated for major and minor publishers. With degrees in Fine Arts, ArtHistory/MuseumStudies and English Lit., her interests are eclectic, as are her reading preferences. Surrounding herself with books,artworks, assorted papergoods and a collection of pens, she reads constantly, writes reviews...writes and writes!View Full Profile

Monday, May 21, 2012

One of my all time favorite writers has a new book being released tomorrow, which isn't coming soon enough for me! If you haven't read anything by Richard Ford, now's the time. This Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Falkner Award winner is among the best authors the US has to offer, writing such masterpieces as "Independence Day," and other fabulous books about our society. Below you'll find some pertinent information and about this book, which has to be an instant best seller once we get our hands on it! The book is published by Harper Collins, a publisher I'm finding is fast becoming my favorite in the book business. They are publishing consistently wonderful books...another topic, however. Here are "Canada" summaries:

Library Journal

Since winning the Pulitzer Prize for his 1995 novel, Independence Day, Ford has cultivated a reputation for writing lucid and compelling prose. Here, he lives up to that reputation. The story unfolds around 15-year-old Dell Parsons, whose world collapses when his parents are jailed for a bank robbery, his twin sister flees, and he is transported across the border by a family friend to an obscure town in Canada. With detailed descriptions of place, Ford connects Dell's feelings of abandonment with the equally desolate setting of a remote Canadian landscape. The novel is pervaded by a profound sense of loss—of connectedness, of familiarity, of family—set against a profound sense of discovery. By piecing together the random events in his life, Dell transcends the borders within himself to find a philosophy of life that is both fluid and cohesive. VERDICT Segmented into three parts, the narrative slowly builds into a gripping commentary on life's biggest question: Why are we here? Ford's latest work successfully expands our understanding of and sympathy for humankind.—Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH

Summary :

Book Description

Publication Date: May 22, 2012

"First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the
murders, which happened later."
Then fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal
life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life
into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed.
His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future
for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment,
Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But
Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across
the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat
on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an
enigmatic and charismatic American whose cool reserve masks a dark and violent
nature.
Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery and arrest, Dell struggles
under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he
knew. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer to a harrowing
and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.
A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest
writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence
lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in
spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a
classic.

The Dame's Final Words For Now

I'm coming back next week with a review of this book. I can't keep mum about it. This will probably be one of the "must reads" on my book list for the year. To be continued....

Thanks for stopping by because I know your browsing time is so limited these days. Deborah/TheBookishDame